Flawless Victory
by Chuckman
Summary: It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.


Disclaimer: I should be writing a term paper.

Flawless Victory

There were times when Asuka firmly believed the only purpose of the synchronization tests was to annoy her, and give those pervert technicians the chance to leer at her in her plugsuit. She couldn't be quite sure, but she had the sneaking feeling that even the girl one (she couldn't remember their names for the live of her) had been eyeing her lately. As such, while the idiot was at school with his pervert friends, she'd spend the day floating in a tube staring at the walls. A half hour shower wasn't enough to completely get the smell out of her hair. She ignored the idiotic custom of announcing her arrival, slipped off her shoes, and headed towards the bedrooms. She only wanted sleep.

_"Flawless Victory!" _

She froze.

"Damn it!" Shinji shouted, "How do they keep doing that to me!"

That was new. She'd never heard the idiot express anything other than sullen acceptance about anything. She crept the corner and peered around. Grimacing angrily, Shinji threw the controller down, and it bounced across the carpet. In a huff, he jumped from his spot on the floor and tromped off to his room, then through the door shut. Carefully, she eased out of the hall and into the living room. Shinji made no sign of returning, so she sat down on the carpet, picked up the controller, and put it on her lap.

He was playing some sort of fighting game. A message blinked up on the screen.

ICENINE: Loser.

Slowly, Asuka ran her hand through her wet hair, then leaned back against the couch. Slowly, annoyed slightly by the clumsiness of typing out a message with a par of analog sticks and some buttons, she typed in a reply.

LONELYBOI: Yes.

Lonelyboi? Really?

He didn't seem lonely to her.

She watched the cursor blink around the screen until her opponent chose a blue ninja. Not seeing a red one, Asuka picked the yellow one instead. There were other choices, some guy in a weird pointy hat and a stupid over the top sexy ninja lady that was obviously meant as jerkoff material for sad little boys like Shinji. She didn't get what the differences would be, blinking her cursor around the screen.

She wasn't familiar with the controls, but it couldn't go too badly. She was the great Asuka Langley Soryu. Some goober from the internet wasn't going to beat her.

She managed three feeble button presses before ICENINE pounded her into the ground. It was brutal. The silly graphics and over the top blood sprays meant nothing to her, but every attack she made was countered and every movement ended with her being hit. She waited patiently for the next round to start. She knew the controls, now, it shouldn't be too bad.

She managed to land one light punch, taking a tiny nick off the opponent's health bar. She was then immediately and totally ruined, pounded with combo after combo until her health bar was empty. To add to the indignity of it, her teetering yellow ninja was frozen and smashed into pieces. The game was laughing at her!

Oh. Oh no you did not.

"What are you doing?"

Her wet hair whirled and slapped against her shoulder when she spun around. Shinji was standing behind her, a confused look on his face, until he saw the controller. He walked over to her, plucked it from her fingers, and then walked over to the television and turned the console off.

"Hey!"

"You already took my room," he said quietly, "can't I have anything to myself?"

"Fine," she muttered, rising to her feet. "Jerk, keep your silly game. Adults have better things to do with their time."

For emphasis, she crossed her arms under her bust and stomped out of the room, slamming shut the very door of her purloined bedroom behind her.

* * *

><p>Asuka blinked her eyes open and checked the time. It was four am, and she had three hours before they had to be at school . Slowly, she crept out into the living room. She turned on the television to a blank channel first, set it to mute, and then turned on the console and sat down. She didn't know Shinji's password, and she didn't want to be known to the world as LONELYBOI anyway, so she quickly set up her own, not bothering with the profile picture, and set the game to single player mode, the hardest single player mode, and began to play.<p>

The damn thing cheated. The computer's character moved to fast and ignored her combo breakers, but she persevered. She was running her tongue across her lips as she concentrated on playing each round over and over. It took her a few to discover that pressing a certain combination of buttons made her yellow ninja do a special move. She could shoot out a little spear and suck the opponent over to her, and render them temporarily helpless. More experimentation revealed more moves.

When Shinji's alarm went off, she deleted her screen name in a panic, ran to the television, and shut everything off. She made it just in time to brush past him and take the bathroom first. A housebroken male was useless, but she felt a certain charm in making sure he knew his place. He scowled and walked into the kitchen and set about making breakfast, and she went to shower.

* * *

><p>She let him beat her home.<p>

When she walked into the living room, it was with a black plastic bag from the game store on her forearm. The pervert that worked in there had stared at her the entire time she was looking for the spare controller, and she was relieved when she found it, paid for it, and started the walk home. Shinji ignored her, focused on playing his game as she sat down, took out the controller in its package, and began tearing it open. He looked at her askance as she walked over to the console, plugged it in, and returned to her seat, controller in hand.

She gave him a look of unabashed glee when she pressed her start button.

The single-player match ended, and kicked them both to the selection screen. Asuka immediately jumped on the yellow ninja, while Shinji mulled it over for a moment, and then picked glowy eye pointy hat man. He didn't look at her as the screen counted down the beginning of the match.

She started to say something, but as soon as the game decreed "FIGHT!" he was on her, and she had to mash the block button to stave off a wicked combo. She leaned into it, pressing the controller into her legs to improve her grip, and fought back, pushing him out of the corner. A few jumps and jabs opened up enough space for her to use the spear on him. As soon as actual tactics came into play, she had him. The match was over that fast.

Shinji grunted, leapt to his feet, and walked out of the room. "You play," he said sullenly.

Asuka blinked. He looked angry, and that confused her. She followed him.

"Hey," she said, "wait!"

He shook his head. "No. I just want one thing where you're not belittling me and showing me how much better you are all the time."

He closed the door to his room in her face and left her standing in the hallway, blinking. Very slowly, she walked back into the living room, turned everything off, and walked into her room and sat down. She stared at the wall for a minute, her chin propped on her fist, and then stood up.

"Shinji," she said to his door.

"Go away," he replied, his voice muffled.

"Let's play."

"No."

"I was having fun."

"I wasn't. I just wanted to play with myself for a while."

She snickered.

"I didn't mean it like that! Go away."

She sighed. "Fine. If you don't play I don't want to, either."

She had already turned away when the door slid open. "Really?"

She shrugged without turning around. "What's the point in beating up a computer? It's too easy."

Slowly, haltingly, he walked out of his room and headed for the television. She trotted after him, and beat him to the console. She switched everything on and sat down eagerly with her controller in hand while he took up a position beside her, leaning laconically against the couch.

The chose their characters. The match began.

She pounded him into the ground. It was hard not to.

"You're just mashing buttons," she sighed. "You have to be tactical. Come over here."

He slid over to her, his controller in hand, and watched as she loaded up a match against the computer. She pointed out why and how she was forcing it to work to land hits on her, and ran him through a few basic combos. She had to hold his hand to work his fingers across the damned buttons to get him to do it right.

Finally, she let him start a versus match.

Ten seconds later, "Flawless Victory!"

"You're not getting it," she grumbled.

He sighed. "I'm getting bored with this. I need to make dinner."

She jutted her chin out at him. "You are not. Sit down!"

"I can't do it," he sighed. "I'm just no good."

Her eyes narrowed. "Why are you always so self defeating? You need an incentive."

"Like what?" he said, his voice wavering.

A feral grin spread across her face. "If you win one match, I'll let you kiss me."

He blinked. "What?"

"You heard me."

"If you brag to your pervert friends, I'll kill you."

"Why would I do that?"

She huffed. "Just shut up and play the damn game."

Match after match, he improved steadily. She went from beating him to the ground to winning with a third of her life bar gone, then half. Finally, she just barely beat him, the controller creaking under her grip. She was bobbing and swaying and swinging it around as if she could move the character by pure force of will.

"I can't do it," Shinji moped, starting to stand. "I really need to-"

She put a hand on his shoulder and forced him back down. "Sit down!"

Sighing, he waited for the countdown.

It was a close one. It came down both of them blocking each other's attacks, whittling down their almost nonexistent lifebars. Finally, by sheer luck, Shinji landed a jab that sent her character standing in a teeter, and Shinji's avatar picked up the yellow ninja, ripped his limbs off, and tossed him into a never-ending pit full of spikes.

"Hey," Asuka said absently. "Where did you learn to do a fatality?"

"I practiced against the computer," he shrugged.

He looked at her.

She looked at him.

"I can't believe I agreed to this," she muttered.

"I-"

She cut him off, covering his lips with her own. She never realized how nice he smelled. It was hard to describe, exactly, except that it was familiar, and comforting. When she pulled back, he was staring at her.

"What?"

"I… uh… that was… um…"

She crossed her arms. "Don't think I'm your girlfriend or anything. It was just a kiss. No big deal."

He stared after her incredulously as she stood up. He turned away from her, shaking and breathing shallowly, and logged into the multiplayer match. He might have a chance, now. With the proper encouragement, he could surprise her, she thought.

Ten seconds later, "Flawless Victory!"

"Damn it!" Shinji snapped.

Asuka sighed and went to take a shower.

* * *

><p>Misato crept into the apartment quietly, afraid of waking her charges. Well, one of them, anyway. She checked the note on the fridge –Shinji had saved her dinner- and softly walked to his room, and slid the door open. He rolled over in his futon and looked at her with one open eye.<p>

"Did it work?"

He nodded.

She grinned, and slid the door shut, then thought better of it and slid it open again.

"Hey Shinji," she whispered.

"What?"

"Sub Zero wins. Flawless Victory."


End file.
